Preview — Blue Mars
by Kim Stanley Robinson

The red planet is red no longer, as Mars has become a perfectly inhabitable world. But while Mars flourishes, Earth is threatened by overpopulation and ecological disaster. Soon people look to Mars as a refuge, initiating a possible interplanetary conflict, as well as political strife between the Reds, who wish to preserve the planet in its desert state, and the Green "teThe red planet is red no longer, as Mars has become a perfectly inhabitable world. But while Mars flourishes, Earth is threatened by overpopulation and ecological disaster. Soon people look to Mars as a refuge, initiating a possible interplanetary conflict, as well as political strife between the Reds, who wish to preserve the planet in its desert state, and the Green "terraformers". The ultimate fate of Earth, as well as the possibility of new explorations into the solar system, stand in the balance....more

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An independent Mars but not a peaceful one, Blue Mars, blue skies, a great , stormy, huge , Martian North Sea, of the same color, turning salty, fish swimming below, birds flying above, animals roaming around the land, majestic trees growing on beautiful hills, sparkling rivers gently flowing by, magnificent green vegetation everywhere on shore, dark clouds that cause showers to pour down, howling winds over 150 miles a hour, making powerful waves crash on pretty little fishing villages and resoAn independent Mars but not a peaceful one, Blue Mars, blue skies, a great , stormy, huge , Martian North Sea, of the same color, turning salty, fish swimming below, birds flying above, animals roaming around the land, majestic trees growing on beautiful hills, sparkling rivers gently flowing by, magnificent green vegetation everywhere on shore, dark clouds that cause showers to pour down, howling winds over 150 miles a hour, making powerful waves crash on pretty little fishing villages and resorts, gorgeous beaches full of Martians playing, boats tossed high in the breathable air, dazzling islands in the Sun, the mythical great canal built here, towering mountains twice the size of Everest, curious tourists from distant Earth arrive, yes a paradise, if no people lived on the 4th planet. The struggle always continues between crippled, crowded, desperate, over populated Earth and an almost empty Mars. Terra, needs to send millions, or billions to the former red planet. Nevertheless the Martian government resists this, treaty or no treaty, in the 23rd century, pressure from their population, both native and immigrant, who believe that already enough millions are there, and the Reds still actively blowing up things they feel are hurting their world, but you can not return to the pristine deserts, with a toxic, thin atmosphere, blinding, choking, dust storms, that last years, and circled the globe, brutal, sub zero temperatures, of past days, ( no more pink skies), only read or see ancient pictures, about them. After the second revolution succeeded, the reds tried to destroy the invaluable, ingenious, space elevator, controlled by Earth still, a threat but the green government, stopped it in a brief civil war, yet very destructive one ... The first hundred ( 101, in fact, there was a stowaway, Coyote), are fewer, even with the Treatment , less than twenty now, living to a ridicules age , over 220, some older but their minds are going, a new drug is needed or Sax, Maya, Ann, Michel , Coyote, etc., will be no more, sudden deaths will wipe them out . Nevertheless how can you relate to natives that are seven feet tall, and think you are a museum piece, from a history book (they still exist ! ) ? And what about Hiroko ? Is the great, enigmatic biologist, who could grow anything on the formerly desolate surface, here, alive. Sightings from Earth to every part of Blue Mars, are constantly reported, she has vanished, either killed in the rebellion against the UN, or hiding with her followers, the mystery has become a sort of joke...The Solar System is being inhabited everywhere, from steamy Mercury, cloudy Venus (in the future), to deep inside small asteroids, weirdly shaped, to the frigid moons of Uranus ... Neptune and Pluto are next, and they will not stop there, crossing to the nearest stars, with Goldilocks planets (not too hot, not too cold, just right), new technology is opening up the heavens , limits are falling, the human race feels that they can do anything, and solve every problem, overcome all, Manifest Destiny, in Outer Space. The Universe will be conquered, humanity needs elbow room ......more

This review of Blue Mars is in fact a review of the entire trilogy, since it's one continuous story -- one that altogether weighs in at something around 2,300 pages. I've been living on Mars for the last 3 months and wish that, if it were possible, I could actually live there, at least the Mars portrayed in these books. It's certainly not a series for everybody -- all those lots of pages are filled with lots of science, lots of politics and political theory, and lots of philosophy.

However, forThis review of Blue Mars is in fact a review of the entire trilogy, since it's one continuous story -- one that altogether weighs in at something around 2,300 pages. I've been living on Mars for the last 3 months and wish that, if it were possible, I could actually live there, at least the Mars portrayed in these books. It's certainly not a series for everybody -- all those lots of pages are filled with lots of science, lots of politics and political theory, and lots of philosophy.

However, for such a long work, the story line is fairly straightforward. 100 super-scientists journey to Mars, establish a colony, and while they gradually terraform it, other "Terrans" settle it, fleeing an over-populated and rapidly declining Earth. The books describe the struggle of the "Martians" (Robinson's clever inversion -- those humans living on Mars become Martians) to transform Mars into a habitable world, a struggle that takes place in two dimensions: the scientific problem of turning barren, cold Mars into a new Earth, and the human problem of creating a workable society freed from the toxic ways of life still found on Earth. In this way, Robinson weaves together the old utopian impulses of science fiction with a kind of "hard science" style of sci fi that I've not seen in quite a while.

Utopian fiction: Robinson knows his sci fi, and this trilogy in many places reminded me of a massively inflated version of LeGuin's classic The Dispossessed. The two worlds of Urras and Anarres are replaced by Mars and Earth, respectively. Just as Urras was cold and relatively desolate, compared to the superabundance of life on Anarres, Mars begins as a totally uninhabitable place, while Earth (to which the narrative moves twice) remains, even in its decadent state, almost inhospitably alive. LeGuin's novel famously created the genre of the "ambiguous" or "critical" utopia, and the Mars Trilogy follows out this idea. In passing from Earth to Mars, the first hundred decide that they are not beholden to their original mission, and that they have the opportunity finally to create a better form of human living, but like LeGuin's anarchist utopia, even a better form of human living is subject to the human frailties of fractured relationships, power, conformity, and xenophobia, so that the reader is treated to multiple revolutions as the colonists struggle to realize a new form of living. The first of these revolutions, in Red Mars (book 1) is a stunning page turner, the lengthy description of the fall of the elevator cable being one of the best moments in that book. Without spoiling too much, the second revolution in Green Mars (book 2) is almost as gripping, and more philosophically interesting, and sets the stage for the slower and more meditative Blue Mars (book 3), in which Robinson takes delight in exploring numerous post-revolutionary forms life: communal, neo-tribal, etc. The trilogy leans unapologetically to the left and toward environmentalism, although Robinson shares the old-school Marxist faith in technology as a solution to many problems.

Science: Robinson is fairly obsessed with Mars, and any of my friends who decide to read this should use the specially constructed Google Maps for this trilogy (thanks, Dennis, Boccippio!) to follow the narrative -- there are many long travelogues in the narrative. Geology (technically, areology), biology, astronomy, psychology, physics, all get long discussions. If you're not a scientist, or don't find science interesting, you might zone out, but Robinson manages two remarkable feats: first, he folds the science into the narrative well, so that it becomes a part of the actual story, and he frequently uses the science as a metaphor for what's happening politically or personally with the characters. Second, he's about the best popular science writer around: he explains even the most technical scientific ideas with clarity and verve. Having just finished the book, I think know the geography (areology) of Mars better than that of Earth.

Philosophy: Robinson wrote a doctoral thesis on Philip K. Dick. Although his style reflects little of that great writer, he certainly includes the philosophy in a way that echoes Dick. As a philosopher, I typically hate writers who explicitly discuss philosophical ideas in books. It takes something special to pull it off: Dick certainly had it, and Robinson has it. For one thing, he seems to actually understand the philosophical issues he raises, for another, just as with the science, the philosophy reflects events occurring in the novel and with the characters. Whole sections of the book are actually examinations of particular philosophical ideas folded into narrative. One is devoted to Kuhn's notion of the paradigm, a late chapter on the character Zo is lifted straight out of Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, even Deleuze gets a chapter. I don't know that it would be possible to identify each section with a philosophical idea, but it would be worth trying.

So, lots of ideas, obviously. But fundamentally, it's stories and characters that sell narratives, and Robinson manages to provide those as well. A convenient plot device, the "gerontology treatments," greatly extends the lives of the characters, so that we are able to follow the first hundred through the entire 150-year span of the trilogy. In fact, many of these characters are killed off, lending a genuine sense of danger to the narrative and also providing a kind of woven structure to the narrative that's quite lovely. As some characters die, their story is taken by other members of the first hundred, or by new, "native born" Martians. If nothing else, the long story of Saxifrage Russell (not a subtle symbol, that name, as he is the main advocate of terraforming) and the hardcore "Red" Ann provides a remarkable continuity and also a terrific character development arc. I must say I was completely in love with Sax by the time the story was over: crazy, brilliant, compassionate, a sort of "good" mad scientist, he has become one of the my favorite characters in all of sci fi.

Panoramic, epic, and yet intimate, filled with science and ideas and politics, it's really a remarkable read. I'll agree with the criticisms that Blue Mars is a bit slow, and that the travelogues can be a bit overlong (although having a good map makes it much easier), but if you want to really go to Mars, this is how you get there....more

Christmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.

On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.

While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and becameChristmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.

On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.

While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and became a father. As such these stories became imprinted on my memory as the soundtrack to the happiest period in my life (so far).

I was reading Blue Mars while my wife was in labour. As she dozed under the effects of an epidural, I was sprawled across some piled up beanbags, working my way through this final instalment of Robinson’s terraforming epic. I finished it up while waiting for my wife and newborn son to be released and as such it will forever remain etched on my heart.

Having read the entire Mars Trilogy back-to-back, I found Blue Mars to be a maddening and melancholy yet powerfully memorable book.

The blurb on the back is misleading. It sets the scene for Blue Mars to be a showdown between Mars and Earth. That storyline does slowly grow in stature throughout the book, but it never really dominates proceedings and climaxes with a whimper – it’s probably the weakest strand of the story.

The whole book is a melancholy affair. If Red Mars represented dreams crashing down, and Green Mars portrayed a new world being built up, then Blue Mars is about achieving a sustainable plateau. The characters are old, their memories are going, their goals have mostly been achieved and they don’t know what to do with themselves. It’s all a bit too reflective and listless to be truly gripping.

In the same way that the introduction of Nirgal in Green Mars seemed to give the series a fresh dimension, I felt the arrival of the hedonistic young Zo Boone in Blue Mars could really add something sparkling and fun. As such, I was extremely disappointed that (view spoiler)[she was killed off so quickly (hide spoiler)].

And yet (I find myself saying) and yet! Despite these frustrating flaws, it is a fitting closure to the series which I shall remember in details for years to come. Over the course of three books I’ve come to treasure the character, Sax Russell, and for him to finally earn the love of his nemesis put a big goofy smile on my face. Throughout the first two books Maya Toitovana’s mood swings meant she grated as much as she enthralled me – but by the end of book three she’s reached a place of self-acceptance through her love of dramatic tragedy that made me want to hug her tightly.

I’m not sure if I’ll revisit this series one day, or not. It’s a hard old slog – but much like hiking the Appalachian trail, it's a journey that won’t be easily forgotten.

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The science is great. I don't agree with all of it, but who am I to say? I would equate his use of science as a literary device to Asimov, except Robinson uses science that is reasonable within humanities grasp. The science is the real strength of this book and series. It is outstanding.

His moving from character to character throughout all three books worked well. No points lost there.

The real problem with this series and especially this book was that, even though parts of it were fascinating, pThe science is great. I don't agree with all of it, but who am I to say? I would equate his use of science as a literary device to Asimov, except Robinson uses science that is reasonable within humanities grasp. The science is the real strength of this book and series. It is outstanding.

His moving from character to character throughout all three books worked well. No points lost there.

The real problem with this series and especially this book was that, even though parts of it were fascinating, parts of it were so incredibly dull that a Pelican History of Greece was exciting in comparison. These parts were so bad that I kept it in my car so I could suffer through a little at a time while waiting in the McDonalds drive through. This is why this book took months rather than days to read.

If I wasn't anticipating a memorable endind, I would have given up despite having read the first two books with moderate suffering. Instead, when I reached the last page I had two questions.

First: Was that the end of the book or did they forget to put the last chapter in my copy?Second: I thought I knew what the book (and series) was about, but was it about anything?.

My impression. Robinson only wrote this story (If it was a story. There were lots of events but no viable plot.) as a means to present some good theoretical science....more

"Here we are." A genre, if not a literary tour de force. Blue Mars concludes nearly 2000 pages of Robinson's middle 1990s future history of the settling and development of Mars. While Robinson strays close to the border of ridiculous social commentary a la Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, most readers will identify his monumental achievement chronicling the physics, chemistry, biology--and, yes, even the psychology and politics of his brave new world.

That said, Robinson cut"Here we are." A genre, if not a literary tour de force. Blue Mars concludes nearly 2000 pages of Robinson's middle 1990s future history of the settling and development of Mars. While Robinson strays close to the border of ridiculous social commentary a la Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, most readers will identify his monumental achievement chronicling the physics, chemistry, biology--and, yes, even the psychology and politics of his brave new world.

That said, Robinson cut many corners and stacked the deck in favor of his settlers. In fact, often their biggest challenge was to keep from killing one another—but isn't that true to life? Paradoxically, his neo-Marxist society existed as a leisure class-unencumbered by worries of money or costs--all made possible by robots, AI and genetics.

The fun was somewhat diminished by the long sermons, but Robinson even managed to laugh at himself occasionally.

Quibbles: All too easy and too fast. Instant trains; instant fusion rockets, (almost) instant breathable air. Underwater salt columns which hadn't dissolved after a century? Scuba down two kilometers? Round world running events? Polar bears? Talk your way out of major interplanetary confrontations? He creates a volcano in Green Mars, then doesn't mention it again in that book or in Blue Mars.

There’s something of ‘after the lord mayor’s parade’ about this volume. After the revolution of the last volume, I was hoping for something of civil war in this. For the bulk of the narrative though it’s just a lot of characters figuring out what Mars means to them; which although well written, lacks a certain drama. For instance, there’s a long section about blight attacking the potato crop of one of the major characters. Now, if you were actually farming on Mars, that's no doubt a problem whicThere’s something of ‘after the lord mayor’s parade’ about this volume. After the revolution of the last volume, I was hoping for something of civil war in this. For the bulk of the narrative though it’s just a lot of characters figuring out what Mars means to them; which although well written, lacks a certain drama. For instance, there’s a long section about blight attacking the potato crop of one of the major characters. Now, if you were actually farming on Mars, that's no doubt a problem which would be a great worry, but it doesn't really shake the reader by the lapels demanding attention.

After all the immersion in Mars and all things Martian in the previous books, there's more of a solar-system wide travelogue to this volume, with visits to Mercury, Earth (allowing the author to try and fail to capture a cockney accent. Okay he doesn’t quite channel Dick Van Dyke, but it would never pass muster down Catford.) and the moons of Jupiter and Uranus. Since these books have hitherto concentrated, with vast detail, on life on Mars, these soujorns feel like a loss of focus. As if Stanley Robinson suddenly realised he didn't actually have enough Mars material for three volumes.

(That feeling is only intensified by the sudden appearance of inter-generational sex on the Martian surface. It's not that that particular hot and heavy scene demands a nomination for 'The Bad Sex Prize', but the sudden appearance of a lusty young maiden and her unlimited desires a thousand or so pages in (or whatever it is, I read it on a Kindle) does feel like an author scrabbling around for something to write about.)

Towards the end, the background rumblings of a war do finally start to crack the surface, but annoyingly Stanley Robinson chooses not to focus his attention there. Instead he tries to deal with what I thought was a big flaw in this otherwise, detailed, seemingly realistic, hard science-fiction trilogy – the fact that its characters have had aging treatments and are living for hundreds of years. There’s an attempt to examine what this would mean both physically and mentally – how much memory could such an old brain hold, after all? – but clearly, and frustratingly, he doesn’t take this examination anywhere near as far as he could. The problems that are raised are sorted out neatly with scientific mumbo jumbo, a wave of a magic wand and a deus ex machine. All of which leads to a happy ending which is heavily signalled in this volume, but surprised me having read the two previous books.

So having ploughed through all three long volumes, I find myself disappointed. The first two I enjoyed, but the third feels flat, unfocused and inconsequential. It’s like I’ve travelled a great distance for nothing much in particular, but then maybe ‘travelling a great distance for nothing much in particular’ is exactly what the real Mars would be like....more

More than a review of the book itself, this is a brief review of the whole trilogy.

In Red Mars robinson sends his crew of highly-cold-war-themed characters to the Promised La-- I mean, to Mars, where humanity can begin a new era of terraforming, colonization, and all-around awesomeness. But as soon as they arrive there, the colonists, all of them Spacefaring Badasses (except the radical Christian) decide that they wish to establish a New and Utopic Society, and that they deserve, nay, are obligeMore than a review of the book itself, this is a brief review of the whole trilogy.

In Red Mars robinson sends his crew of highly-cold-war-themed characters to the Promised La-- I mean, to Mars, where humanity can begin a new era of terraforming, colonization, and all-around awesomeness. But as soon as they arrive there, the colonists, all of them Spacefaring Badasses (except the radical Christian) decide that they wish to establish a New and Utopic Society, and that they deserve, nay, are obliged, to detach themselves from Earth to make a Better World.

In Green Mars, they do just that. Nobody questions their inherent assumption of uniqueness and manifest destiny. Except Earth, who is playing the villain, trying to keep Mars bound to metanational corporation and capitalism, and destroy the primeval planet for its own nefarious ends, like, well, alleviating hunger, and population density.

Somewhere in there, together with everything else, the author introduces the plot device of the Longevity Treatment, so that he can have the same characters reappear throughout the generation-long task of terraforming a planet.

This Avatar-like scenario (except for the Martians, thank God) is brought to an all around successful conclusion in this current book, Blue Mars. If the Gratuitous Caps, the Slightly Cynical Tone and the Allusions to Americana are not sufficiently revealing, let me state explicitly that I did not altogether approve of the series.

It had some merits. The first book was actually entertaining, and the beginnings of terraforming on an alien, uninhabitable planet were researched with the caution and precision we would expect of a hard sci-fi author like Robinson. But the veer into politics, and, later, the lengthy, rambling digressions into more terraforming than we ever cared about, including depths of canals, precise dating of geology, etc', created books that were overly long, occupied often with things that didn't interest me at all, and characters that were flat as a cardboard cut.

And speaking of politics, I found it smug, sanctimonious, and on many levels just a little too pat. The utopia and perfect harmony blooming out of the empty; the manifest destiny of Mars to "educate" the screwed-up, old-fashioned Earth, the liberal values replacing all tradition, the "assimilationist" policy favoured even by those characters in the books who purportedly wanted cooperation with Earth. I felt like reminding Robinson that Melting Pot strategies stopped being popular already in the sixties.

There was something generally dated in these books, and it was not the science. Some of the cold war vibe, perhaps, but more than that, this notion of a perfect society that can be better than other societies due to an inherent virtue of being as liberal and harmonious and rational as it was possible to be. The clear-cut idea of humanity hurtling through the medieval primate urges of its patriarchal past into a clean pure future where American - that is, Martian - values (except capitalism, of course, which was replaced by an only slightly edited and miraculously viable socialism) guide mankind into the glorious Golden Age culmination of human history.

I can't deny that the author did at least try to attempt to insert inherent human frailties, like greed, lust for power, dogmatism, reactionism, and xenophobia, into the mix, but his solutions were often as one-sided as the problems he tried to present, and grated on my admittedly much-too-cynical nerves immensely.

It's not a bad read, but by the end of three books, I was quite done....more

This review was written in the late nineties (just for myself), and it was buried in amongst my things until today, when I uncovered the journal it was written in. I have transcribed it verbatim from all those years ago (although square brackets indicate some additional information for the sake of readability). It is one of my lost reviews.

This volume of the Mars Trilogy departs from its predecessors in one tremendous leap -- this is a work of philosophy and politics before it is a story. And thThis review was written in the late nineties (just for myself), and it was buried in amongst my things until today, when I uncovered the journal it was written in. I have transcribed it verbatim from all those years ago (although square brackets indicate some additional information for the sake of readability). It is one of my lost reviews.

This volume of the Mars Trilogy departs from its predecessors in one tremendous leap -- this is a work of philosophy and politics before it is a story. And this change makes it the best of the series. All of the characters are here, but it is what they say and believe and do that is so special.

This novel changed me. It altered the way I perceive my world, particularly the words of Vlad concerning "capitalist feudalism." But more importantly, it reinvigorated my desire to make a difference and not just live my life in isolation. I was reading this novel while the U.S. and NATO were attacking Serbia over Kosovo. A few weeks later, the Columbine [shootings] happened in Colorado. Then came Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. It all seems so depressing and overwhelming and meaningless, but really these events are all of a piece, and all are incentives to change those things Robinson so rightly criticizes.

I don't know if I can change anything, but I am sure going to try.

[A note of personal interest: those changes that Robinson catalysed are still with me today, but they were also something of a breakpoint for my first marriage. The changes pushed us too far apart to ever be together again.]...more

For me, this trilogy is one of those life-changing books - something you talk about, and think about years later. If we ever go to Mars - this is the way it should be done. For those of you not familiar with Kim Stanley Robinson, his science is so grounded in real, hard, current science - it's called future history.

For those of you scared of sci-fi being too boring - much like that physics class you hated - relax. Robinson gives you the basic idea, without pages to describe just how a particulaFor me, this trilogy is one of those life-changing books - something you talk about, and think about years later. If we ever go to Mars - this is the way it should be done. For those of you not familiar with Kim Stanley Robinson, his science is so grounded in real, hard, current science - it's called future history.

For those of you scared of sci-fi being too boring - much like that physics class you hated - relax. Robinson gives you the basic idea, without pages to describe just how a particular engine works. For those of you sick of Star Trek solutions - Reconfigure the tri-corders or the dilithium crystal and BAM - problem solved! I swear you will feel satisfied.

What do you do to earn your money, or your food? How do you create rules, and a government in this completely alien place? When a vaccine for aging is developed - is everyone allowed to have it? Do you send it to Earth? Do you let poor and uneducated people have it for free? How about over-populated places like India? All the terra-forming science used to make Mars habitable - how far do you go with it? Just because you can do it - does that make it right to do it? Should you share it with Earth, or make them pay? Do you do the other planets next?

These are the questions he explores, discusses and answers.

If you like to think about stuff like this - start reading and make yourself a happy human. If "thinkin" ain't your thing - walk away slowly and no one will get hurt. John Carter this is not. You are participating in the dialogue, even if you are just watching the action. So this is a book for those who want to ponder, brood, wonder, think, debate and discuss.

What's to love?

ACTION - there's a trip back to Earth, and the Martians come to the rescue.DESCRIPTION - lot's and lots and lots, but the scale is so HUGE it's cool. Instead of Grand Canyon, think Marinaras Trench, but not under the ocean.CHARACTERS - Great! These people had to endure a year of isolated, highly-monitored living in a confined space to get a ticket on the spaceship. But think about it, what kind of people would want to do that - no family, no friends - move to Mars, face possible death, not come back. Just think about it.CREATION - creating a new world, new economic systems, new politics, new ecosystems, new species, new religions, new science. Every civilization is a possibility of what you can have, and an example of what you should dismiss. What would you do?

What's not so fun?

Sometimes the Tolkein-size descriptions of the landscape are too much. Skim a little here and there if you have to, but don't miss the EPIC size scenery, because it will stick with you forever.

Read this and for the rest of your life, you will perk up whenever someone mentions Mars. Oh, and you will have informed opinions....more

I just don't even know where to start with this book. There are so many parts of it that aggravated me nearly to the point of distraction, and then there would be a part that was pretty good, and then there would be frustration again, and sometimes I'd want to tear characters out of the book and throttle them. Is it really that bad? Or is it just that I am far too aggravated by what is really a defining feature of many of Robinson's characters in many of his books?

Note: The rest of this review hI just don't even know where to start with this book. There are so many parts of it that aggravated me nearly to the point of distraction, and then there would be a part that was pretty good, and then there would be frustration again, and sometimes I'd want to tear characters out of the book and throttle them. Is it really that bad? Or is it just that I am far too aggravated by what is really a defining feature of many of Robinson's characters in many of his books?

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

This final part ends one of the most complex sci-fi series I have ever read. The accent here is put on the development of the natives, their society and also on the their relationship with Earth and the new colonized planets.

It is not a light read, however, the way KSR imagined the development on Mars is highly interesting, with the focus not on action but on characters, which are analyzed in great detail.

Some will find it boring, but it depends on what your expectations are: if you expect greatThis final part ends one of the most complex sci-fi series I have ever read. The accent here is put on the development of the natives, their society and also on the their relationship with Earth and the new colonized planets.

It is not a light read, however, the way KSR imagined the development on Mars is highly interesting, with the focus not on action but on characters, which are analyzed in great detail.

Some will find it boring, but it depends on what your expectations are: if you expect great action and suspense, aliens or turnabouts, then this is not for you. But if you are interested in politics, economics, sociology and science, then it is a must read....more

Back in my drinking days, I would occasionally wake up next to someone I was sorry to find there, but I would still make them breakfast out of some sense of obligation. Misplaced empathy; too-long-delayed sobriety; vestigial chivalry; call it what you will. Reading Blue Mars was a lot like one of those breakfasts. I had enjoyed myself with book one and part of book two; this was just playing out the string. After I got rid of the novel, I lost its phone number and went to different bars for a coBack in my drinking days, I would occasionally wake up next to someone I was sorry to find there, but I would still make them breakfast out of some sense of obligation. Misplaced empathy; too-long-delayed sobriety; vestigial chivalry; call it what you will. Reading Blue Mars was a lot like one of those breakfasts. I had enjoyed myself with book one and part of book two; this was just playing out the string. After I got rid of the novel, I lost its phone number and went to different bars for a couple of months so I wouldn't bump into it....more

The characters of The Mars series are much like Martian volcanoes: flat and shallow at first glance, with little expectation beyond the short horizon. But the horizon deceives, and that gradual slope in development results in a surge that extends miles into the atmosphere. That surge occurs in this third installment, Blue Mars, and leaves the reader gaping into the enormous depths of jagged human emotions.

It’s not that KSR intended for his characters to appear two-dimensional in the first instalThe characters of The Mars series are much like Martian volcanoes: flat and shallow at first glance, with little expectation beyond the short horizon. But the horizon deceives, and that gradual slope in development results in a surge that extends miles into the atmosphere. That surge occurs in this third installment, Blue Mars, and leaves the reader gaping into the enormous depths of jagged human emotions.

It’s not that KSR intended for his characters to appear two-dimensional in the first installment of this series; it’s just that the character treatment in Red Mars was nowhere near the depth and breadth of his treatment of the Martian environment and technology. But that flaw is rectified in Green Mars, and in Blue Mars the characters are what eventually save this series from becoming a Carl Sagan-esque textbook mash-up of really cool speculations about Mars. (Which has its own merits, but c’mon, this is a novel!)

The SynopsisThe First Hundred have become The Final Twenty-Something as the early colonists of Mars have suffered through accidents, murder, isolation, intrigue, and two major political revolts. Now, as the Martian terrain becomes hospitable and the population swells due to Terran immigration and native reproduction, the elderly survivors of The First Hundred try to settle into normal lives, while also steering the infant government in official and unofficial political appointments. In addition, they battle the unforeseen complications of being the first generation to benefit from the longevity treatments that have allowed them survive for over two centuries.

Blue Mars gives the reader a chance to see the survivors of The First Hundred (and some of their offspring) living normal lives (or trying to, at least). They are no longer the eggheaded outcasts of Red Mars, or the world-building dieties of Green Mars. Now, they are elderly celebrities with memory problems, who are sometimes derided or forgotten as the younger generations vie for political power. These people, who once traded Terran society for a grim, isolated life on an inhospitable planet, must now participate in a vibrant, breathable world among millions of other humans. In the process of their adaptation, KSR explores complex human experiences associated with intimacy, rivalry, mental health, and emotional growth. And how many mid-life crises can you have before your 200th birthday?

The SeriesIt’s difficult to characterize a series as expansive as The Mars Trilogy, but it’s a bit like driving around with beloved Grandpa in a classic, yet clunky, old sports car. Each novel begins slowly, puttering along while KSR shows off the scenery– and he won’t move on until he is certain that the reader knows every detail– the color of every leaf , the feel of Martian grav on the joints, the behavior of the ocean waves, (as well as the biological, chemical, metereological, and physical reasons for each of these observations). Green Mars and Blue Mars contribute to the bulk by further exploring his theories on government and economics. But this old car doesn’t idle well, and sometimes the plot stalls on these detours. But– BUT– keep turning that engine, because once it gets going again, it’s an exciting ride– until Grandpa wants to stop and look at the flowers again. Yes, the flowers are pretty, Gramps, but what about the story?

But by the end of the ride, all that frustrating stopping and starting is worth it, and all those observations coalesce into a pulsating, lush world.

This is high-definition reading. I hope your head is HD ready.

Confession: Everything KSR writes is beautiful, and I have the Twitter feed to prove it, but I’ll admit that each book in this series started as a struggle to read. My experience of the whole series is a contradiction: each book felt dull, yet fascinating. I dreaded each session of reading during the first half of each book, and yet I couldn’t put down the last two novels for the final 40% of the story. (Many of my favorite novels share this attribute.)

It’s really a case of sensory overload, and I often blanked out during the massive chunks of tedious detail. My advice is to blow through the political tedium (there are A LOT of political conferences, the worst sections for massive infodumps), and if you blank-out on the scenery, don’t bother re-reading. It’s nice for flavor, but missing some pieces won’t detract from ultimate understanding or enjoyment. Trust me, I lost a lot of hours due to re-reading (and re-blanking).

But I get overwhelmed in department stores, so maybe I’m just sensitive to sensory overload.

Blue Mars is the true gem of this series, and Green Mars is worth a look, too. The Hugo voters of the 1990′s got it right when they left Red Mars on the shortlist and gave the best novel award to the final two installments. Setting and science are necessary for good SF, but strong character development makes excellent SF. Blue Mars gets everything right with a fully realized world, scientifically-backed (yet dubiously expensive) technology, and a lifetime of two centuries with endearingly flawed characters.

And, if The Mars trilogy sounds like too much hassle, try KSR’s 2312, which shares a similar universe and ideas, but with a simpler, mystery-style story, and smaller infodumps.

Tidbits to share:

The trip to Uranus is extraneous, yet awesome.The vivid descriptions of memory loss and Alzheimer’s-like symptoms are heart-breakingly realistic.Birdsuits… floating towns… cat genes on human vocal chords… yeah, this book has everything....more

Quite frankly, it's been a while since I've been this glad to finally finish a book. The first two books in this trilogy had, as I've mentioned, reasonably compelling plotlines that were bogged down in extraneous detail. This one had the same level of detail, but less plot. It suffered from something I find tends to happen in stories of vast and epic scope: lack of cohesive direction, which becomes particularly noticeable as you get toward the end and you can't identify a clear endpoint toward wQuite frankly, it's been a while since I've been this glad to finally finish a book. The first two books in this trilogy had, as I've mentioned, reasonably compelling plotlines that were bogged down in extraneous detail. This one had the same level of detail, but less plot. It suffered from something I find tends to happen in stories of vast and epic scope: lack of cohesive direction, which becomes particularly noticeable as you get toward the end and you can't identify a clear endpoint toward which the story is driving. This is usually where you really figure out that there isn't one. The story, at some point, is just going to stop. And as I've also mentioned, this is not a technique I have much use for. As a result, I found this book even harder to battle through, and skimmed more of it than I can remember skimming any other book. I resorted to skipping huge passages, scanning for character names or dialogue, in hopes of narrowing in on something actually happening.

And that's kind of unfortunate, because some of his turns of phrase are really quite beautiful and poetic. On the other hand, some of them read like this:

This expansion of the judiciary satisfied what desire they had for a strong global government, without giving an executive body much power; it was also a response to the heroic role played by Earth's World Court in the previous century, when almost every other Terran institution had been bought or otherwise collapsed under metanational pressures; only the World Court had held firm, issuing ruling after ruling on behalf of the disenfranchised and the land, in a mostly ignored rearguard and indeed symbolic action against the metanats' depredations; a moral force, which if it had had more teeth, might have done more good. (127)

Notice the fact that there is a grand total of one period in the above. Ouch.

I also found it strange what he didn't give details about. Specifically: animals. Pages and pages of description of everything: every geographical feature, every economic and ecological process, every bit of technology, every political machination (And oh, the political machinations. They made me want to stick chopsticks in my eyes.), but suddenly there are polar bears and other animals, with little more than a throwaway mention of the fact that some scientists have been working on animals. Did we forget to research genetic modification of animals, Mr. Robinson? Because that's kind of how it came across.

And another question: Why such a hate-on for women? Nadia's great, but she's the only one of the major female characters that I would ever be willing to spend any time with. Phyllis is the worst stereotype of a female executive, so power-hungry she'll step over or on anyone to get more of it. Maya is a narcissistic drama queen manipulator who loves to play one man off another, and then bemoan the terrible position their rift puts her in. Hiroko's a weird enigmatic mother earth figure who, despite what she'd probably tell you, pretty much doesn't play nice with others because she simply doesn't give a shit about what anyone else thinks about anything. Jackie is an utterly repellent combination of all the worst features of Phyllis and Maya. And Ann. Ugh. As hard and unyielding as the rocks she loves so much, she's only saved and turned into a vaguely reasonable human being at the end by the love of a man. Gag me.

Anyway, there is some interesting stuff in these books, and as we move closer to the time when the trilogy started, it's intriguing to see how real life compares to what Robinson wrote. But I think some of those ideas could have been better served by not drowning them in So. Much. Tedium....more

Blue Mars confirms it: Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy has ascended to my personal pantheon of science fiction series. It's up there with Frank Herbert's Dune series, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Octavia Butler's Earthseed Duology, Ursula Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, and the Culture series of Iain M. Banks. Like these other masterpieces, the Mars Trilogy is not just something you read, it's something you live, something that stays with you and changes you long after your eyes pass over the final sentences.

As I noted in my review of Green Mars, the genius of the trilogy is that Kim Stanley Robinson combines hard SF, literary writing, and philosophical rumination to produce something beautiful -- maybe even something as sublime as Mars itself!

Red Mars is about settling on Mars, while Green Mars is about becoming Martian. Blue Mars is about being Martian. Once humans have completed most of the terraforming of Mars, and once Mars has had time to areoform humanity, what next?

What to do once some of us have become Martian? That's the question of Blue Mars.

This question has multiple dimensions: political, biological, ecological, cosmological, artistic, mathematical, sociological, philosophical. The depth with which Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) plumbs these dimensions is astounding. I can't possibly do justice to this depth in one review. Nor can I do justice to the literary beauty of much of KSR's prose.

The plot also resists easy encapsulation. While basic arc of the plot concerns the idea of being Martian, it almost seems more appropriate to talk about plots in the plural. There's plenty of politics with the Reds, Greens, and others vying for influence while the ecological, economic, and political problems on Earth put pressure on Mars, especially concerning immigration. There's a trip to Earth, and later a trip to Uranus and even a mention of a few trips to the stars, perhaps hinting at KSR's 2015 novel, Aurora. One of my favorite chapters follows a character as he temporarily joins a group of people living as a band of hunter-gatherers (a seed for KSR's 2013 novel, Shaman?).

All of this takes place over a period of about 100 years. Thanks to longevity treatments, the reader views most events through the First Hundred (the original Martian colonists from the early 21st century) and some of their decedents.

The Mars Trilogy shows that we can move beyond our social and personal poisons. Not necessarily all at once, or without occasional periods of regression. We may have "punctuated equilibrium, without the equilibrium" (p. 324). But it could happen. There is hope.

Herein lies KSR's utopian vision: Humans have a nature, but that nature can change over time. Just what you'd expect for evolved and evolving creatures like us....more

The final chapter in the saga of Martian colonization is by far the weakest. You'll probably want to read it if you read the first two, just to round out the story, but it's not the most exciting read, and doesn't really give the resolution you might hope for.

The book starts out near the end of the second Martial revolution. This time, the good guys won, or are about to win. The war was relatively (but not entirely) non-violent, and the MartiansWarning: May contain spoilers from Red/Green Mars.

The final chapter in the saga of Martian colonization is by far the weakest. You'll probably want to read it if you read the first two, just to round out the story, but it's not the most exciting read, and doesn't really give the resolution you might hope for.

The book starts out near the end of the second Martial revolution. This time, the good guys won, or are about to win. The war was relatively (but not entirely) non-violent, and the Martians have all but kicked out the Terrans and are free to start their new utopian society. They write a constitution, hold elections and put it into action.

To me, this was the climax of the whole triology. Unfortunately, it wraps up around page 100, and the book is 600 pages long. A lot of people (not me) complain that in Lord of the Rings, the climax happens too early and the denouement is too long, given that the most important threads of the story have been tied up. Well, imagine if insteading of returning to the Shire, defeating Sharky and going to the Grey Havens, we get detailed accounts of Frodo running for president of the Shire, spending four years at that post, Merry trying to build politcal alliances throughout all of Middle-Earth, Pippin spending year after year staring at rocks and brooding, and Sam spending seven years working a farm that gets destroyed in a Martian dust storm.

What is the point of all this, I wonder? I think maybe Kim Stanley Robinson was trying to show the Martian lifestyle that he had imagined his characters would build, with all it's ups and downs, but I can imagine that myself. After all, we've already had 1200 pages living with the hints of it.

Everything seems to change in Blue Mars, and not in a good way. The hopefulness of building something new is gone. Characters that were charismatic and powerful in Green Mars have become whiny, embittered, hyperaged. Even Nirgal, the uniter of all Mars, the hero of the solar system, disappears into the shadows to become just a regular guy who happens to be able to run fast. The book never works to the kind of resolution you hope for from a book in which you've invested so much time. For example, what happened to Hiroko? Are we never supposed to know? Was it someone besides Selim who killed John, hence absolving Frank? Why would you introduce that kind of doubt in the last pages about a key event that shapes everything that happens in the rest of the book, and never resolve it?

The book spends hundreds of pages on stuff we don't find interesting, and then ends by glossing over something that might have been in two pages of nearly incomprehenisble stream-of-consciousness (actually it was a drunken conversation with no punctuation or paragraph breaks, but the affect is similar).

Then the very end is just a simple continuation of everything else. Here is us living our lives, the same as before in some ways, different in some ways, as it has been in all the previous chapters. Nothing particularly interesting, just living, but on Mars. Maybe that's appropriate, but I guess I would have liked something with a little bit more global closure....more

The last of the Mars trilogy was much of what I found in the previous two books. There are interesting parts where we get to delve into the science and technologies that are being employed throughout Mars. But in the end the story isn't cohesive enough to actually leave the reader with any idea what the point of the story was.

In book 1 we were introduced to a number of different characters which we have followed throughout the series, and we've seen how they've responded to different situationsThe last of the Mars trilogy was much of what I found in the previous two books. There are interesting parts where we get to delve into the science and technologies that are being employed throughout Mars. But in the end the story isn't cohesive enough to actually leave the reader with any idea what the point of the story was.

In book 1 we were introduced to a number of different characters which we have followed throughout the series, and we've seen how they've responded to different situations that have taken place politically and environmentally as Mars is colonized. But as far as I can tell that is the plot, there is the overall story of how Mars is changed and how it in turn changes those living on it but is that enough to actually call this a story?

My final impressions of the series as a whole is that I would consider this more of a thought exercise than a story. The entire series is filled with brilliant ideas and like an experiment these ideas are implemented and the results are collected for the reader to examine. While this is interesting it failed to engage me. However the author painted a beautiful picture of Mars, a Mars that I would love to call home. ...more

I think that I have read this series in its entirety six times. In my opinion, any astronaut or colonist who leaves earth for Mars should be required to read this series. Between my fascination with sci-fi and Mars, combined with some top-notch character development/interaction along with some really great socioeconomic theory (no where near as boring as it sounds) this is my most favourite series, hands down.

One thing that I have always enjoyed about KSR's writing is the attention he puts intoI think that I have read this series in its entirety six times. In my opinion, any astronaut or colonist who leaves earth for Mars should be required to read this series. Between my fascination with sci-fi and Mars, combined with some top-notch character development/interaction along with some really great socioeconomic theory (no where near as boring as it sounds) this is my most favourite series, hands down.

One thing that I have always enjoyed about KSR's writing is the attention he puts into his characters and their development. It is absolutely them that drive his stories forward. He then puts his characters in a very scientifically based and well described environment that makes everything come together flawlessly.

Robinson's writing has probably had the most impact on my own work out of any of the authors that I have read and if I one day even get close to his level of skill I will consider myself successful....more

I've loved this series. I find it just incredibly hopeful for the future of mankind--with all our foibles and faults--and for the possibilities that getting off this rock would open up to us. But I also love the way in which age functions in these books, and how Robinson imagines what a sudden boon in longevity would mean for us, both culturally and individually. So much of what's imagined here feels possible, if not probable (as is always for me the case with Robinson's work). Get me to Mars. II've loved this series. I find it just incredibly hopeful for the future of mankind--with all our foibles and faults--and for the possibilities that getting off this rock would open up to us. But I also love the way in which age functions in these books, and how Robinson imagines what a sudden boon in longevity would mean for us, both culturally and individually. So much of what's imagined here feels possible, if not probable (as is always for me the case with Robinson's work). Get me to Mars. I want to grow up to be a centuries-old woman flying its skies in a birdsuit. ...more

2.5*That was a chore to get through, but I invested so much time in the other two books, I wanted to see how it ended. Sadly another book with lots of great ideas, boring story. The previous books where more capitvating I must say.On a side note it irks me to no end when authors use foreign words, in this case german, and misspell them. It's Wertewandel not Werteswandel, bad job by the editor.

The trilogy is much better on a reread, but I'm still hard pressed to make a judgement. The Silmarillion may be the closest comparison: these books span centuries and much is told in summary. (Contrast Foundation, which covers a long story by skipping forward but with immediate narration.) It may also be tedious to wade through scores of pages with characters arguing forms of government, economic policy, etc. etc., although I find it at least somewhat interesting. If you like that aspect of MoonThe trilogy is much better on a reread, but I'm still hard pressed to make a judgement. The Silmarillion may be the closest comparison: these books span centuries and much is told in summary. (Contrast Foundation, which covers a long story by skipping forward but with immediate narration.) It may also be tedious to wade through scores of pages with characters arguing forms of government, economic policy, etc. etc., although I find it at least somewhat interesting. If you like that aspect of Moon is a Harsh Mistress you'll be fine, although the political conclusions are very different. Overall, I keep coming back to the sense of place that pervades the entire series. Because of these books, Mars is somewhere concrete. If you have the stomach to read about other peoples' 3am solve-the-world's-problems talkathons, I think these are worth digging into. The end result has a unique dream-like majesty....more

As convenient a story device it is to have life extension make the same characters accompany us for so long, the duration engenders an attachment of its own as it must have among the first 100 themselves. It works. The commitment pays off.

With the planet unrecognizably changed it has lost some of its lustre as a main character. But then you find out that the Mars trilogy actually is not about the planet but about politics. Naive as they may beSo the journey of many long m-years comes to an end.

As convenient a story device it is to have life extension make the same characters accompany us for so long, the duration engenders an attachment of its own as it must have among the first 100 themselves. It works. The commitment pays off.

With the planet unrecognizably changed it has lost some of its lustre as a main character. But then you find out that the Mars trilogy actually is not about the planet but about politics. Naive as they may be KSR's politics are the most advanced in the genre maybe even in all of fiction. How often do you have to read about Mondragon cooperatives and the ideas of Arkady Bogdanov to subscribe to his brand of libertarian socialism with more than a dash of scientism. It probably won't work but what we have right now is not really working either. So why not try to build little marses down here?...more

As a speculative fiction novel about the colonization and development of Mars, this is the weakest entry in the trilogy. As a statement on science, politics, and the human condition; this was Kim Stanley Robinson's best Mars book.

The first quarter or so of this book was the denouement of Green Mars, the middle volume of the series. The timeline, the character perspectives, the subjects, musings, and even terminology mark it as the resolutStoryline: 2/5Characters: 5/5Writing Style: 3/5World: 3/5

As a speculative fiction novel about the colonization and development of Mars, this is the weakest entry in the trilogy. As a statement on science, politics, and the human condition; this was Kim Stanley Robinson's best Mars book.

The first quarter or so of this book was the denouement of Green Mars, the middle volume of the series. The timeline, the character perspectives, the subjects, musings, and even terminology mark it as the resolution of things passed rather than the introduction of that to come. Substantively this portion was more than a little wearying as the political examination in Green Mars had already been belabored to the point of drudgery and monotony. This did, however, serve as notice that Robinson was less interested in the technical and hard science fiction minutiae of continuing the development of the planet. For those waiting for or otherwise expecting KSR to fully embrace the terraforming story - those like myself - this resolution of Green Mars events was a caution that the author had other prerogatives. One comes to understand the double entendres of the volume titles - Red, Green, and Blue - and that KSR was more interested in the sociological "blue" than the environmental one.

For me personally, then, this was a disappointment that, granted, grew out of mislaid assumptions. It is more clear in retrospect that Red Mars, despite the heavily geographical and environmental preparation, was really exploring the prospects for a new social and political order. It is unfair to begrudge KSR this, and he did set the thought experiment in a fun science fiction environment. It is more fair, I think, to begrudge him the later 3/4 of this book. Green Mars had reaffirmed Robinson's interests and proclivities, but even those were overshadowed by the the traipse through new and ill-connected technological, sociological, and political themes. There did not appear to be any plan or order to the shifts in perspectives or the emphases on topics. We left Mars repeatedly only to satisfy some whim of the author. We jumped from topic to disconnected topic that had caught the interest of the author but which never merged with Robinson's earlier aims or trajectory. We started on complex political storylines only to have the author drop them and skip ahead over intervening years. This ended as a rather poor conclusion to the events set in motion by the first 100.

Those complaints laid, I confess that there was still something especially rewarding in the volume. Though not a good Mars book, Robinson shone here as an artist. He is obviously widely read and interested in a range of topics. The book bounces between his interests in gerontolgy, mathematics, political science, economics, physics, environmentalism, sociology, and engineering. Interested in all, master of none, he contextualizes his dilettantism by having his characters speak from positions of bias or compromise. Thus while KSR might not have a full theory of alternative economics worked out, he simply has the character voicing his interests be biased against the current economic order. When KSR is dabbling with string theory, his participants at a physics conference chime in on different aspects of the current debate. I didn't read Robinson as making any pretenses to expertise he didn't have. I read it as speculative fiction. Robinson simply had a lot of speculations. And these speculations were nicely couched in characters and brought out by thoughtful contrasts. He handled the topic of youth and history with surprising deftness. The closing chapters were the most artful of the entire series as he dealt with the topics of aging, memory, love, and character. He turned some of the most unappealing and objectionable characters into fabulous character studies that showed a real empathy into even the most awful of people. In all of these areas KSR was a genuine artist penning a truly engrossing experience. I only wished that artistry had been applied in a different book and that he would have closed with as comprehensive of a terraforming story as he began with in Red Mars.

Kim Stanley's Robinson's politics, though less focused and organized here, is still full on display. The nature of that politics is going to both engender die-hard fans and foment resolute detractors. I looked briefly as some biographical information on the web during the read, and his interests and identities are as eclectic as they sound from the book. He's obviously not a devoted Marxist, nor does he seem committed to any major ism. He's a radical. That term, purposefully broad, is big enough, I think, to capture his many different positions. While I don't personally agree with KSR on a lot of his ideas, I did enjoy his best-case efforts to show how radicalism might begin and proceed. I found him to be immensely self critical - a value I highly approve of - and was impressed with his acknowledgements of the many faults and weaknesses of a radical agenda. There were a few areas in which I think he was too far removed from mainstream thinking (or simply too fanciful with his "hard" science fiction) to give an adequate self-criticism. In these areas - resource limitations, debts of obligation, the link between radicalism and violence - he ignored considerations that would seriously undermine his proposals and goals. Thus I cannot fully endorse the book as a complete or coherent radical vision. It is a serious accomplishment though worthy of being read as both sci fi colonization speculation and leftist manifesto....more

This last and longest entry in Robinson's Mars Trilogy offers a satisfying conclusion to the inspiring and far-reaching tale. From "Red Mars"'s description of the early colonization and terraformation efforts, and "Green Mars"'s exploration of the question of how to build a new and lasting civilization, "Blue Mars" pushes farther to envision how that new society might function and evolve. The development of unique social and political institutions is a major theme, and a great deal of thoughtfulThis last and longest entry in Robinson's Mars Trilogy offers a satisfying conclusion to the inspiring and far-reaching tale. From "Red Mars"'s description of the early colonization and terraformation efforts, and "Green Mars"'s exploration of the question of how to build a new and lasting civilization, "Blue Mars" pushes farther to envision how that new society might function and evolve. The development of unique social and political institutions is a major theme, and a great deal of thoughtful analysis of the underpinnings of human interaction is exhibited by the author, at both the small and macroscopic scales. Notwithstanding some increasingly fanciful speculative technological elements - which are quite exciting and interesting, despite their perhaps questionable plausibility - the human characters remain grounded in realism and feel very true to life... While some character arcs may have warranted greater attention than they receive, and although every single loose end may not be addressed by the final page, the story is, on balance, well worth the read. Fans of the previous two books in the series are unlikely to be disappointed with "Blue Mars".

I am DONE! Thirteen years after I first picked up "Red Mars", I am done with the trilogy. It wasn't easy. As fresh as "Red Mars" felt, so slow and tired was "Blue Mars". There was little new plotwise, compared to "Green Mars"; the same boring old characters, the same Red vs Green political friction, the same constitutional congress, irritatingly shallow female characters, a strong sense of heteronormativity (the book was written in 1996 after all). But at least I'm done.

Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy.

His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to hisKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy.

His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his fascination with Mars, become a member of the Mars Society.

Robinson's work has been labeled by reviewers as "literary science fiction".

“Economics was like psychology, a pseudoscience trying to hide that fact with intense theoretical hyperelaboration. And gross domestic product was one of those unfortunate measurement concepts, like inches or the British thermal unit, that ought to have been retired long before.”
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“The intense desire to talk with someone, sharp as any pain; this was what people meant when they talked about love. Or rather; this was what Sax would acknowledge to be love. Just the super-heightened desire to share thoughts. That alone. ”
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